You would not believe how long it took me to think of a title for this post. The time used is, clearly, in no way reflected in the title eventually used, sorry.
You can’t beat drying your clothes outside, it’s one of life’s little pleasures (like getting all the shell off a hard-boiled egg in one go). However, as someone with a fairly slap-dash approach to routine household chores I’m not the sort to be taking clothes in and out 4 or five times to balance the outdoor fresh scent with the likelihood of rain so I am also a tumble drying aficionado. If you’re in the market for a tumble dryer, read on. If you’re already an owner, stay tuned – I’ve got some lazy tips & money-saving advice too.
If you’re buying a tumble dryer you firstly need to decide whether to have a vented machine or a condenser. This is an important decision, so make sure you properly consider exactly which one will best suit your needs.
Vented tumble dryers extract the damp air from the drum and vent it out through a hose. Vented tumble dryers are cheaper and generally use less energy than condenser models. A vented dryer must be positioned near a window or door to vent the air away. The hose needs to be placed so that the air is going out of the window. Sometime ago, I broke the inner-glazed pane of some double-glazing by 1) putting the vent hose against the window, 2) failing to open said window, and 3) putting the dryer on for about two hours. In case you were wondering, the sound of an inner-pane of glass imploding is not for the faint-hearted. Or cats. Let my epic stupidity guide you – no matter the size of the room you’re locating your dryer in, if you can’t vent then get a condenser.
Condenser dryers extract moist warm air from the drum and cool it, turning it into small droplets of water. The water is collected in a removable reservoir. A condenser tumble dryer can be installed anywhere. As the water from the drum is collected, steam isn’t an issue so it doesn’t need to be near a window or wall.
Next, never forget that size DOES matter! All tumble dryers have a load size, in kilogrammes (kg). To give you a rough idea, 1kg would be about five adult t-shirts; as our tumble-dryer sizes range from a compact 3kg load right up to 10kg. I would suggest that your tumble dryer is the same kg load as your washing machine so you can move your laundry straight from the washing machine to the dryer. Our laundry appliances can be seen here
The days of tumble dryers costing a fortune to run are behind us as the energy efficiency is getting better and better. To work out how much it costs you simply multiply the cost of a unit of electricity (average of 15p kwh here, based on current advice from the lovely folks at Energy Savings Trust) by the rating of your machine.. As an example, we pay 13p per kwh and our machine is 3kwh = 39p for an hour of drying, which is generally enough.
The science-boffins at Miele recently unveiled the world’s first solar-powered tumble dryer which amuses me more than it should! Brilliant.
Remember the old Bounce sheets that used to get towels smelling lovely? I have a cheat: add 1 – 2 tablespoons of fabric conditioner to an old, clean & dry flannel then chuck that in with the wet load in the dryer. Your clothes will be soft and static free and the smell is lovely.
You’re welcome.
